The difficulty is that many of the 'standards" set over the years have been driven by commercial entities (Illy comes to mind). So much of the confusion is a muddled mess. For example, there was a discussion a while back as whether or not a Moka pot makes espresso. They cannot generate anything even within sight of 8 bars. But go to Italy and ask and you will be assured that it does indeed make espresso.

Unless you own a coffee shop or restaurant and want to serve certified Italian espresso, you might as well forget the highly technical definition of the Istituto Nazionale Espresso Italiano or any other coffee association. It can only give you a general (but very good) idea what espresso should be like. Any standard is only a starting point, from which you can try to find out what you personally like best. After all most here use more than just 7 g for a single or 14 g for a double shot. What counts in the end is the taste in your cup.

However, looking at the godawful espresso and espresso based drinks served in many places around the world, those standards are badly needed to define and maintain a certain minimum quality.

***"This drink of the Satan is so delicious that it would be a shame to leave it to the infidels." (Pope Clement VIII on coffee, when he was urged to ban the beverage)

... Now, the other interesting thing is the taste of equally-diluted, properly extracted espresso to a well-brewed properly extracted same strength coffee.... but that's OT from the original question of the "definition" of espresso.

The difficulty is that many of the 'standards" set over the years have been driven by commercial entities (Illy comes to mind). So much of the confusion is a muddled mess. For example, there was a discussion a while back as whether or not a Moka pot makes espresso. They cannot generate anything even within sight of 8 bars. But go to Italy and ask and you will be assured that it does indeed make espresso.

Randy, I live in Italy and can assure you that no one here thinks that moka pot makes espresso, unless you are referring to the "BACCHI" that does make 9Bar espresso, shame the Bacchi is only known to a limited number of amateurs. It is more a problem of roasters who offer miracle blends..., or people who collect the first droplets of coffee and mix with sugar that vigourously stirred gives a kind of crema to be added to the cup after coffee is servedCiao, Pietro

Randy, I live in Italy and can assure you that no one here thinks that moka pot makes espresso, unless you are referring to the "BACCHI" that does make 9Bar espresso, shame the Bacchi is only known to a limited number of amateurs. It is more a problem of roasters who offer miracle blends..., or people who collect the first droplets of coffee and mix with sugar that vigourously stirred gives a kind of crema to be added to the cup after coffee is servedCiao, Pietro

Yeh I don't consider Moka to be espresso, it's about as close as you can get to espresso though in terms of that deep, thick/syrupy type flavor. That Bacchi machine is really cool though, watched some vids on youtube.

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